


The Day When

by protect-him (protect_him)



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: M/M, Modern AU, kind of a teenage au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 00:26:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12569560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protect_him/pseuds/protect-him
Summary: Trying to write something fluffy.





	1. Prologue

Anders woke up to the cacophony of snoring. The hotel room was stuffy and hot. The gang had arrived in Tevinter late last night and Anders was the only one awake yet it appeared.

They didn’t have plans for the day. The whole road trip had been an impromptu affair on a free long weekend. They’d have to spend tomorrow driving back, but today they were all free to explore this new city. Eager to be out, Anders got up, quickly showering and getting dressed in the dim light. He nearly tripped over Hawke’s sprawled leg, finally tucking one of the room keys into his pocket and leaving the room.

This city had many attractions, and Anders wasn’t sure exactly what he would do today. Perhaps he’d go to the zoo, and he definitely wanted to go shopping in one of the little markets, and there was the docks and a park with a famous statue of Andraste. So much to see!

Anders stopped short in his tracks by the elevators. Was that crying?

He ventured towards the sound, stopping when he realized that the source was just around the corner.

He heard a door open and the crying stopped.

“I don’t know why you are throwing such a fit,” a stern voice said. “I am busy today and can’t be bothered with you. I have a very important meeting this afternoon and a party tonight, and can’t have you around getting underfoot. I’ll call you when I’m done. Now get!” The door slammed and there was silence.

Anders ventured a glance around the corner. He saw a teenager close to his own age sitting outside one of the hotel room doors. He’d been crying, but now he was simply sitting and staring at the door. The door opened again and Anders ducked back.

“And you’d better get out of this hotel,” the man said. “I don’t want to see or hear you until tonight.”

The door slammed.

The man’s mistreatment of his… son? Anders could only assume the adult was his father. This was heinous. The guy was obviously in distress. Anders didn’t want to embarrass him, but he was starting to get an idea.

He went back to the elevator and pulled out his phone to search for nearby breakfast places while he waited for the guy to show up. After a few minutes, he did, walking slowly to the elevator, rubbing his bare arms with his head hanging low.

“Good morning!” Anders said brightly. The guy didn’t respond at first, then looked around and finally up at Anders.

“Me?” He asked.

Wow, his eyes were so big and green. He had dark skin laced with white tattoos and white hair. He was beautiful.

“Yeah, you,” Anders said, “I’m Anders.”

The guy glanced at the elevator buttons, noticing that they hadn’t been pressed. He pressed the down button and it lit up. He looked back to Anders, a bit suspiciously.

“What’s your name?” Anders asked.

After a pause: “Fenris.”

“Do you want to get breakfast with me, Fenris?” Anders asked. If he could get Fenris to say yes, Anders’ brain was working to plan the greatest day ever for him. The guy needed cheering up and nothing could do that better than just mounds and mounds of kindness.

“Um, sure,” Fenris said, shrugging. “I don’t have any other plans.”

Anders smiled. And there. He was going to give Fenris the best day he’d ever had.


	2. Five Doesn't Go Very Far

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their day together starts.

Fenris didn’t look very happy yet. Anders had decided on a small breakfast place nearby. It had good reviews and was touted as being “cozy and clean, with a good selection of regional menu options.” Anders did want to try some Tevene food, after all.

“Are you from around here?” He asked Fenris as they left the hotel.

“I am from Tevinter,” if that’s what you mean,” Fenris replied.

“This place is supposed to have some good Tevene food,” Anders said. “Perhaps you can tell me which ones to try.”

Fenris shrugged. He wasn’t very talkative. Anders could talk enough for two.

He told Fenris that he was visiting on a whirlwind road trip with some friends. He told Fenris about Garrett and Merrill and Isabela, how Varric and Aveline, not really that much older, were the self-proclaimed adults of the trip.

He talked about the drive until they reached the little breakfast place. They were seated quickly at a small and secluded corner table.

“This is so nice,” Anders gushed. “The atmosphere in here really is so cozy and warm. I love the table settings.”

Fenris was already looking over the menu.

“What should I get?” Anders asked him, picking up his own menu.

Fenris shrugged. His neutral expression was slipping into a frown though.

“Is something wrong?” Anders asked. “You don’t have to tell me, I just want to know in case I can help.”

Fenris’s eyes slid away from the menu, looking towards the wall of the restaurant. A small open window with a flower box outside sat just at eye level.

“You don’t like the food?”

“It’s not that,” Fenris said. “It’s just a little expensive.”

Anders’ eyes widened and he looked down at the menu. It wasn’t even unreasonable.

“How much do you have?”

“Five.”

“Five  _ dollars?! _ ”

Fenris nodded, his fingers gripping the menu. He now suddenly looked thin and small to Anders, shoulders hunching fearfully.

“That’s...not much.”

“I should go—”

“No,” Anders said quickly. “Please don’t. I was planning on paying for yours anyway. Get whatever you want. I am just surprised you only have so little.”

“My guardian…I can’t accept that.”

“Your guardian only gave you five dollars?”

“For the day,” Fenris explained, nodding.

“I want to take you around with me today,” Anders said. “Everything will be my treat. I insist.”

Fenris’s eyes widened. “I cannot!”

“Please,” Anders said. “It would make me so happy to have someone to explore with.”

“What about your friends?”

“I have to admit I’ve had enough of them for the day after the car trip yesterday,” Anders said. “I’d rather spend the day with you.”

“Why me?”

“Why not? You don’t have anywhere to be, and you only have five dollars. What kind of guardian does that?”

“Not a good one,” Fenris mumbled.

“Exactly,” Anders said. “We’ll have fun.”

Fenris smiled sadly, as if he knew he wouldn’t. Anders accepted it as a challenge.

“You can’t say no,” Anders said. Just then, the server arrived at their table.

“Can I get you two anything to drink?” She asked.

“Coffee for me,” Anders said, then looked to Fenris. If he ordered something, then Anders could assume he would allow Anders to treat him today.

“For me as well,” Fenris said quietly. The woman took off. Anders took that as Fenris’s consent.

“We’re going to have a great day,” Anders said. “I already have most of it planned.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“You’ll have to wait and see,” Anders said, grinning. To his delight, Fenris answered with an amused smile. Yes, this was going to go marvelously.


	3. The Museum of Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both of them have memories of magic.

Once they had finished breakfast, Anders headed for the museum. Tevinter was known for its history of mages and research into the arcane. There was a museum on it, and Anders was hopeful to find some reassurance there. Mages weren’t exactly treated well everywhere, but here in Tevinter, they definitely were. Mages were the celebrities here, and the museum was huge.

Anders was filled with excitement as he climbed the white marble steps leading up to the entrance. Fenris, now Anders’ less willing companion, glanced up at the imposing building nervously. He said nothing, though, as Anders led the way inside, up to the ticket counter, where he purchased passes for both of them.

Perhaps this would be better than Fenris anticipated. It was different from an actual Tevinter mage looming over you...wasn’t it?

There was a magic timeline, history of mages. Images colored with brilliant flashes of red and blue and yellow and green. Fenris’s eyes lingered on the red.

Anders opened his museum guide and turned to Fenris.

“What do you want to see?”

Fenris shrugged.

“I kind of want to look at this exhibit,” Anders said, pointing to a colorful page about schools of magic. “I’ve learned about some of them, but not very in depth.”

“You’re a mage?” Fenris asked quietly.

Anders nodded, still bent over the pamphlet. “I have to take classes, but we only cover some schools. Like I’m specializing in spirit healing, but I know a bit about ice and fire.” He looked up at Fenris.

“How about you? Are you a mage?”

“No.” Fenris said, and his face didn’t seem to express that he  _ liked _ mages either.

“Well, there’s an Andraste and Shartan exhibit,” Anders said. “It looks pretty big. We can go there after. You know about them, right?”

Fenris looked suspicious. “I know of Andraste,” he said.

“Not Shartan?”

Fenris shrugged.

“Okay, we’re going there next.” Anders tucked away the guide and led the way towards the first exhibit. They went through a hall on Tevinter history, and the walls were lined with large paintings of mages and slaves, an homage to the country’s wealthy history of magic use.

“I’m glad they don’t do this anymore,” Anders commented. Fenris huffed.

“It’s just called something different now,” he said. “It is no secret that mages are still the ones holding all the power and making all the decisions.”

“Things are a lot better now,” Anders insisted. Fenris just folded his arms and refused to look at him. Okay, so that wasn’t a good argument. The school of magic exhibit was crowded, with adults and children pressing up against the displays.

They did not linger long at any of them, touching only briefly on fire and ice, force, entropy. Between entropy and spirit, Anders reached for Fenris’s hand to keep them from getting separated. This far side of the room was much more crowded.

The spirit display was awash with green and yellow lights, brightly dressed figures standing over looming shadows. Their hands were lit with green. The display explained how spirit magic tended towards healing, pointedly mentioning that it was also useful for heightening or limiting a person’s abilities.

“This is what I study,” Anders murmured. “Though I haven’t learned anything about haste or paralysis. Just healing.” Fenris wasn’t really looking, his gaze drawn by the next display, the most crowded of them all. Anders followed.

“Oh.”

Blood magic.

The specialization of Tevinter. Definitely frowned upon in Kirkwall, where Anders was living right now. Anders had to admit he was curious. Pulling a hesitant Fenris along, Anders approached the display. It was twice as large as any of the others and twice as crowded.

There were lifelike reproductions of blood magic rituals, complete with glistening red paint. The display was all dark shadows and dull red lights. The rituals were gruesome, and seemed out of place in the modern world they lived in. But the display said many were still in practice today. Anders felt a tremble running up his arm and looked over to see Fenris apparently fighting back panic. He was shivering and looked like he wanted nothing more than to turn and run, but was unable to move.

Anders only worried about  _ why _ for a moment before pulling Fenris away from the crowd, down the nearest hallway. It was cool and quiet here and they knelt down next to the wall. Fenris clung to Anders’ hand until he seemed to have calmed down enough to nod and murmur that he was fine. He pulled his hand away, wrapping his arms around his knees.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Anders stood and looked around.

This room was pretty empty. There was a large replica of a Circle University—a specialized set of sistered schools that were known to be disciplinary and narrow-minded, but often held the most skilled mages outside of Tevinter. Anders had asked about one for when he finished general schooling, but now the recruiter wouldn’t leave him alone and he honestly found the woman a bit fanatical. He wasn’t going there.

“Let’s look at the Andraste and Shartan exhibit then,” Anders said. “You’ve really never heard of Shartan?”

“Should I have?”

“He’s only one of the greatest elves ever to have lived.”

Fenris seemed unimpressed.

“I’m sure you’re great too,” Anders said, “but Shartan was a  _ legend _ . He led the elves in Tevinter back in the old days in a rebellion. They joined Andraste and she named him her champion. He died trying to save her.” Anders sighed wistfully.

Fenris looked at him more closely. How could someone feel so strongly about someone who died so long ago?

“I’ll show you,” Anders said.

The room dedicated to Andraste and Shartan was large and beautiful. The grand Tevinter architecture soared up several floors and the marble floor was inlaid with images of the two heroes.

Anders showed Fenris the timeline on Shartan and explained that he was a slave, but he’d felt the call to lead an uprising at seeing the injustice of their treatment. Anders couldn’t help but think there were some parallels between Fenris’s seemingly abusive guardian and the slavery that Shartan had endured.

“At some point, he decided that he didn’t deserve to be treated that way,” Anders said. “He refused to be owned and commanded. I think that’s pretty incredible.”

Fenris nodded, but his eyes scanned the display thoughtfully. Anders began to wonder what was going on behind those big green eyes. What was he thinking about?

Anders had no chance to ask. Fenris wandered away from him across the room to look at reproductions of both Andraste’s and Shartan’s armor. It looked like it would fit Fenris. He was slight, like most elves, and shorter than Anders, but also seemed to be in good shape. His bare arms were toned and firm. He bent forward to examine the display and Anders whipped his head back around. He hadn’t been staring!

They wandered around the museum a little more, but the longer they were in there, the more Anders noticed Fenris becoming uncomfortable. Before long, Anders decided it was time to go, even though they had only seen perhaps half of the museum.

“We haven’t—” Fenris began when Anders declared that he was done.

“I’ve seen enough,” Anders said. “I want to go somewhere else now. Besides, it’s a nice day. I’d rather be outside, wouldn’t you?”

“Whatever you’d like,” Fenris said. “I will defer to you.”

“I think I have an idea,” Anders replied with a grin.


	4. Lions And Tigers And

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Next stop, the zoo! :D

“The zoo?” Fenris looked confused.

Anders grinned, hands in his pockets. “Yep!”

They were standing in front of the Minwrathous Zoo, gold and marble arches marking the entrance to the maze of animals in delightfully bright habitations. Fenris’s eyebrow arched in a mimicry of the arched entrance.

“Aren’t zoos for...children?”

“Zoos are for everybody,” Anders insisted. “Haven’t you been to one before?”

His jaunty attitude sank a little when Fenris shook his head. Fenris looked confused.

“Never been!” Anders pulled his hand from his pocket to grab Fenris’s and yank him towards the zoo entrance. “We’re fixing that right now.”

Fenris rolled his eyes, but smiled when Anders wasn’t looking. He’d mentioned a zoo  _ once _ , many years ago and Danarius’s harsh laughter still rang in his ears. He was still curious, especially when Danarius called him, “Little Wolf.” He’d seen pictures, but never a real wolf.

Anders pondered the zoo map once they were inside.

“Is it really so hard to decide where to go?” Fenris asked, looking over Anders’ shoulder at the guide.

“It’s a very important decision,” Anders insisted. “We want to see everything without having to double back too much, so we have to plan which way to walk. If we go to the savannah exhibits first, we can see the giraffes and lions.”

“And elephants.” Fenris pointed.

“Then we can walk this way.” Anders’ finger followed the path that moved in a circle around the zoo around the center, which was for smaller animals. “Then we’ll go through the building.”

Fenris nodded and they set off.

The zoo was much more peaceful than the museum had been. The sky had gotten cloudy and it was beginning to rain a little, which neither Anders nor Fenris minded. The animals seemed happy and the zoo was peaceful and quiet.

Anders couldn’t see the lions at first and was upset until Fenris pointed out that there was another path they could walk down to look for them. Sure enough, once they went around, there were the lions, all happily laid out and sleeping on the grass.

“What good kitties!” Anders cooed.

“They would eat you,” Fenris said drily, smiling.

“They’re still good,” Anders replied. “Look at them, what pretty, big kitties.”

“Do you have a cat?” Fenris asked, after gazing at the lions for a while longer. He turned to look at Anders’ profile. Anders could see that he was looking, but didn’t look back.

“I used to,” Anders said. “I want to get another, but I can’t while I’m in school.”

Fenris nodded.

“Do you have any pets?” Anders asked as they were walking to the next part of the zoo.

“Danarius would never let me,” Fenris said.

“So what would you get if you could?” Anders pressed. They paused in front of a group of sleeping monkeys and then moved on when there wasn’t really a lot to see.

“I’d like a cat,” Fenris said. “Something quiet, but he said that I’m more likely to get a lizard. I don’t want a lizard.”

They came to a split in the pathway and Anders stepped under a tree so he could pull out his map.

“We can see more monkeys if we go straight, or if we take the side path we can see some wolves,” Anders said. “Do you have a preference?”

“I want to see the wolves,” Fenris said, looking down at the map.

“That was a quick decision.”

“Danarius calls me his ‘little wolf,’ but I’ve never seen a wolf.”

“That’s an odd nickname,” Anders said, tucking the map back in his pocket.

“It’s because I will be training to be his bodyguard,” Fenris said.

“Wait, you’re not in school?!”

“No, I’ll be beginning formal training in another month,” Fenris said, as if all of this were completely normal.

“I thought he was your guardian. Like your adopted father?”

Fenris laughed, but it wasn’t a really happy laugh. Or bitter necessarily.

“That’s the thing about Tevinter,” he said quietly as they approached the wolf exhibit. “Nothing is actually what it looks like.”

“Will you tell me?” Anders was really in earnest. Fenris bit his lip, looking down at the pavement.

“Maybe...in a bit,” he said.

“Let’s look at the wolves,” Anders said.

The wolves were larger than Fenris had expected, and scarier. He and Anders were safe, but there was a look of wildness about them that made him feel uneasy. Anders felt it too.

“They’re kind of scary,” Anders said. “I feel like a pack of them could take down anything they wanted. Even just one could.” He glanced at Fenris, then reached for his hand.

“You okay?”

“I am fine,” Fenris replied. “We should keep moving.”

So they did. Anders liked the big cats. After the lions, they lingered by the tigers, the panthers, the bobcats, the cheetahs. Any cat they came across, Anders wanted to stop and look at it. He insisted that they were all good kitties and lamented he couldn’t pet one.

“I think these big cats are just as dangerous as the wolves,” Fenris pointed out.

“But they don’t have the same atmosphere around them,” Anders said. “They don’t feel dangerous like the wolves did. They look just like giant house cats.”

“They’re not.”

“I know,” Anders said. “We should go look at the birds next, and then I think we’ll have seen everything.”

He paused as his phone buzzed. Fenris was still looking at the tigers.

“Oh, the others are finally awake,” Anders said. “They were wondering where I went.”

“Are you going back to them now?”

Anders shook his head and they started to walk onward.

“Garrett said they’re going wine tasting. I’d rather not.”

“You don’t want to go with your friends?”

“I’d rather do my own thing today, like I said,” Anders shrugged. “Are you hungry?”

“Maybe a little,” Fenris admitted.

“Let’s get something to eat once we’re finished here then.”

They went into the gift shop before leaving because Anders insisted that Fenris must be cold, since he didn’t have a jacket.

“You don’t need to get me anything,” Fenris said gruffly as Anders looked through the zoo merchandise.

“Nonsense. You should have something to celebrate your first visit to the zoo!” He pulled out a grey jacket.

It fit Fenris perfectly and despite his protests, Fenris really liked it.

“It looks good on you,” Anders said, pulling him towards the checkout counter. The jacket was overpriced, but Anders happily paid for it, purchasing a little cheetah plushie for himself and a little fox plushie for Fenris. The look on Fenris’s face when he handed it to him was worth every penny.

“You got this for me?”

“Yeah, well you liked the foxes. I thought it would be cute.”

Even more cute was the little blush on Fenris’s face. Anders wondered if he could make it happen again.

“Are you ready for more?” Anders asked. “The day isn’t even half over!”

Fenris gave him a small nervous smile, clutching his little fox plushie in the pocket of his new jacket.

“Sure,” he said. “Let’s go.”


End file.
